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Great Expectations
‘You’re a foul shrew, Mother Gargery,’ growled the journeyman.
‘If that makes a judge of rogues, you ought to be a good’un.’
(‘Let her alone, will you?’ said Joe.)
‘What did you say?’ cried my sister, beginning to scream. ‘What
did you say? What did that fellow Orlick say to me, Pip? What did
he call me, with my husband standing by? O! O! O!’ Each of these
exclamations was a shriek; and I must remark of my sister, what is
equally true of all the violent women I have ever seen, that passion
was no excuse for her, because it is undeniable that instead of
lapsing into passion, she consciously and deliberately took extra-
ordinary pains to force herself into it, and became blindly furious
by regular stages; ‘what was the name he gave me before the base
man who swore to defend me? O! Hold me! O!’
‘Ah-h-hl!’ growled the journeyman, between his teeth, ‘I’d hold
you, if you was my wife. I’d hold you under the pump, and choke
it out of you.’
(‘I tell you, let her alone,’ said Joe.)
‘Oh! To hear him!’ cried my sister, with a clap of her hands and
a scream, together – which was her next stage. ‘To hear the names
he’s giving me! That Orlick! In my own house! Me, a married
woman! With my husband standing by! O! O!’ Here my sister,
after a fit of clappings and screamings, beat her hands upon her
bosom and upon her knees, and threw her cap off, and pulled her
hair down – which were the last stages on her road to frenzy. Being
by this time a perfect Fury and a complete success, she made a dash
at the door, which I had fortunately locked.
What could the wretched Joe do now, after his disregarded
parenthetical interruptions, but stand up to his journeyman, and
ask him what he meant by interfering betwixt himself and Mrs Joe;
and further whether he was man enough to come on? Old Orlick
felt that the situation admitted of nothing less than coming on, and
was on his defence straightway; so, without so much as pulling off
their singed and burnt aprons, they went at one another, like two
giants. But, if any man in that neighbourhood could stand up long
against Joe, I never saw the man. Orlick, as if he had been of no
more account than the pale young gentleman, was very soon among
the coal-dust, and in no hurry to come out of it. Then, Joe unlocked
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the door and picked up my sister, who had dropped insensible at
the window (but who had seen the fight first, I think), and who was
carried into the house and laid down, and who was recommended
to revive, and would do nothing but struggle and clench her hands
in Joe’s hair. Then, came that singular calm and silence which
succeed all uproars; and then, with the vague sensation which I
have always connected with such a lull – namely, that it was Sunday,
and somebody was dead – I went up-stairs to dress myself.
When I came down again, I found Joe and Orlick sweeping up,
without any other traces of discomposure than a slit in one of
Orlick’s nostrils, which was neither expressive nor ornamental. A
pot of beer had appeared from the Jolly Bargemen, and they were
sharing it by turns in a peaceable manner. The lull had a sedative
and philosophical influence on Joe, who followed me out into the
road to say, as a parting observation that might do me good, ‘On
the Rampage, Pip, and off the Rampage, Pip – such is Life!’
With what absurd emotions (for, we think the feelings that are
very serious in a man quite comical in a boy) I found myself again
going to Miss Havisham’s, matters little here. Nor, how I passed
and repassed the gate many times before I could make up my mind
to ring. Nor, how I debated whether I should go away without
ringing; nor, how I should undoubtedly have gone, if my time had
been my own, to come back.
Miss Sarah Pocket came to the gate. No Estella.
‘How, then? You here again?’ said Miss Pocket. ‘What do you
want?’
When I said that I only came to see how Miss Havisham was,
Sarah evidently deliberated whether or no she should send me
about my business. But, unwilling to hazard the responsibility, she
let me in, and presently brought the sharp message that I was to
‘come up.’
Everything was unchanged, and Miss Havisham was alone.
‘Well?’ said she, fixing her eyes upon me. ‘I hope you want nothing?
You’ll get nothing.’
‘No indeed, Miss Havisham. I only wanted you to know that I
am doing very well in my apprenticeship, and am always much
obliged to you.’
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